Tyrest negotiates with the
machine spirit controlling the door systems and gains the Warband entry to the
Black ship. He learns that its name is “The Midnight Mourn”.
The Party draw weapons and cautiously
start to navigate their way through the corridors and decks of the seemingly
deserted vessel. There is still emergency power running and the dim lighting is
in stark contrast to the eerie green hue of the wreckage yard.
It’s not long before the two Aeldari
begin to hear voices, strange and ethereal, speaking words they can’t quite
decipher. They then receive a sudden
vision of a passage ahead where a small, grotesque, figure sits in the darkness.
Suddenly Lycastus and Artemis rush
ahead and down a side passage, apparently to hunt down some perceived threat.
Illiyan gives chase but is buffeted by boxes and belongings which are
telekinetically thrown from side rooms and passages as he runs. He is suddenly confronted
with a bulkhead door that slams down in front of him, cutting off the Warlock
from the marine and bounty hunter. Tyrest summons the appropriate ritual of
opening and discovers that another door has closed a short way down. The system
machine spirits inform him that all the doors have been closed, opening each
door in turn will take hours so they are effectively cut off from their
associates. Lilith manages to find an old Vox unit in one of the boxes that had
been thrown into the corridor and gets it working, establishing a line to
Lycastus. It appears that he and Artemis have come to their senses again and
they agree to work their own way though the ship and rendezvous on the outside.
Our two psychically sensitive
Aeldari then begin to hear a clearer voice; that of a young man who seems
frightened and alone. None of the warband trust this however and set off on
their way again.
Further down the passage the
party come across the grotesque from the previous vision and discover it is an
emaciated gretchin who appears to be quite mad and pays the heroes no attention
at all. It is spending all its time scratching words in Low Gothic on every
surface of the corridor that it can reach.
The words he etches repeat the same message over and over; “In withered
flesh and powdered bone sleeps the bastard all alone”.
Lilith swiftly kills the
greenskin.
As the group move on the young
man’s voice starts up again but this time the whole party can hear him. The
sound of the wailing, spectral voices also becomes obvious and the temperature
within the ship suddenly drops, causing condensation on the walls and surfaces.
Slowly writing starts to appear as if fingers were being drawn through the moisture;
“Thirteen times the maker screams, thirteen more within his dreams”
Illiyan is suddenly ambushed by a
maddened and savagely bestial Ork. They engage in melee and the Warlock is able
to hold him off while Lilith draws a bead and shoots him with her laspistol
Ecthelion reaches out with his Psyniscience power, searching the Immaterium for the source of the phenomena that the party are witnessing. He is confornted with a barely restrained force like a burning star of raw willpower. He is shaken, not having realised a human mind was capable of power of that magnitude his sense of superiority over the "Mon-keigh" somewhat shaken. Suitably warned the warband proceeds cautiously.
Unbeknownst to the Warband though, and due
to a series of failed Willpower rolls, they are being drawn further into the centre of the
ship and are confronted with the focus of the psychic activity; Isolation
chamber 26. They learn that the resident within is a notorious heretic known as
Agrex the Desolate, who was caught by the Inquisition just over a standard decade
ago.
Agrex has thrown off all pretence
now and demands that they free him from his imprisonment. Our heroes refuse and manage to evade his
psychic lures. Using their Vox connection to
their colleagues now on the outside and leaving Agrex swearing revenge, they make their way back out of the ship.
As they draw closer to the
fortress they survey what awaits them. While the Ork stronghold is crudely
constructed it is bristling with gun emplacements and swarming with Boyz and
Squig hounds. A frontal assault won’t be
an option so the warband start to make alternate plans…
